Betting favorites off a bye

A look at a system that could help you in Week 9

AP Photo/Denis PoroyPhilip Rivers and the Chargers are favored over the Redskins in Week 9.

The NFL is an extremely physical league with major collisions taking place on every snap of the game. Due to the physicality of the sport, players feel the effects more and more as the season progresses. Although the season is a grind, teams and players do receive a small respite each year in the form of a bye week. From a real world perspective, it's reasonable to hypothesize that time off allows banged up players to heal and the extra rest is a significant advantage for teams coming off a bye week.

Is this really true, an angle we can apply when examining games to pinpoint betting value? Or is this a mainstream myth that we can bet against due to overreactions in the NFL betting market?

To read more about how teams perform against the spread after byes and the best bets to make this week, you must be an ESPN Insider.